Commissioner Ryan's Closing Remarks on the August 2024 Keller Auditorium City Council Decision

Press Release

Commissioner Ryan shares closing remarks on City Council's decision instructing the Halprin Landscape Conservancy and Portland State University to work together on a Keller Auditorium solution.

Thank you all for being here today!

The engagement and testimony was compelling-it was also very stimulating.

I want to start by saying to labor-you are front and center in this plan, no matter what. You were the first to go home in 2020 and the last to return. We must keep you busy, with no interruptions. The show must go on.

To the arts residents, I hear you, and you are top of mind as we move forward. Please see the hope over the fear as we move forward. And I must add, if I am on this Council we will work with Metro to improve the tipping point of doom, the current P5 contracts. They have become untenable for all of local arts groups, so for our residents-I see you, your shows must go on, and I thank you in advance for thinking out of the box.

To Halprin Landscape Conservancy, for the 7+ years of work you have dedicated to this project. Thank you for your devotion to Portland during our most challenging chapter. Your patience is definitely one of your virtues.

To PSU, my employer when I moved back home in 1996, being on the Development team through 2005, thank you for showing up and being ready to be a player. Thank you in advance for being collaborative and creative as you show up at the table with your Halprin friends.

And friends you all are, I know many of you and I've been with people in both camps-you're united as mutual helpers for this city, friends who have vast experience working with Government to move our city forward.

I apologize from all of us that this has been less than smooth, direct, and collaborative. As the Mayor knows, I wanted this action, months ago so I am glad we're here today.

I also apologize that the city created an internal team that has been biased. And, I am grateful that the conversations Commissioner Rubio and I had with DCA Olivera and DCA Schmanski allowed us to work together to move along an objective, results and data-driven process so that we can make the best decision for the stakeholders previously mentioned and for people of Portland.

It is well past time that we regain objectivity and focus on a primary, common goal: that Downtown Portland must have a state-of-the-art performance hall.

In addition, the people who live, work, and visit downtown deserve an urban landscape that includes a restoration of the historic and world-renowned Halprin fountain sequence.

And, of course, our city deserves a high-performing higher education institution that is robust and full of activity. We all miss the Monday through Friday impact of PSU on south Downtown. Your free dirt at the tip of downtown is an opportunity.

The unforced error of blindly moving forward as two separate projects is over. We have wasted enough time. Today, we can move with a shared goal of building a state-of-the-art performance hall with an upgraded Halprin fountain sequence in our downtown.

Yes, we have tough decisions ahead of us, but now we have two groups that are focused on the same common goal. Advice to those at the table-enjoy the tension in your conversations, that is the sign of a productive conversation. Let the collective room be smarter than any one idea or any one of you. And I expect we can come together with civic pride to move forward. We need to all paddle in the same direction.

We have a couple more facts in addition to protecting labor and lifting our arts residents. Keller is on our general ledger. The City of Portland's general ledger. We are responsible for it to be active in a prime location. And PSU is at the table with a vision and free dirt, so how can we capitalize on that?

Portland, this is an opportunity, not a problem.

We cannot kick this can down the road any longer. I will track closely with the DCAs and ensure we will vote in early October. We have right-sized the internal bias, we have capable public servants leading this work, and I will not support any further delays.

Please look beyond the construction deadlines of the next few years and think this out for the next 50.

I look forward to making a decision based on your objective best thinking in 56 days.

That's our job as leaders-let's go!